renaming files

[Marc Teitelbaum]

I was waiting for someone else to post this, but...

Although i hardly ever use it (i tend to use shell loops like those
previously suggested), there was a command posted to net.sources
a while back which does just the sort of transformation on shell-like
file globed lists you need, and in a generalized way.  I include
the (semi-literate) man page at the end.  If anyone wants code i'll
post to comp.sources.unix.

Marc
-----------
Marc Teitelbaum
457 Evans Hall
Computer Systems Research Group - CSRG
University of California
Berkeley, CA 94720

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NAME
        mkcmd - expand complicated global commands

SYNOPSIS
        mkcmd commandstring > shellfile
        mkcmd commandstring | sh

DESCRIPTION

        There is now a command to do those impossible  wild  card
requests  like  rename  everything  which ends with ".ftn" to end
with ".f4p" .  This is done by:

        % mkcmd "mv *.ftn #.f4p" > file
        % sh file

mkcmd  generates a command file on its std output  which  can  be
examined  on  your  terminal,  redirected into a command file, or
piped directly into the shell.

 '#' is the new special  character  introduced  with  mkcmd.   It
represents  the  string  matched by '*,[],or ?' . If there are more
than one wild card specifications in the file name, they may be
referenced by '#1', '#2', ..., '#9'.  e.g.:

        % mkcmd "mv *.[cs] #1.#2.old" >file

will generate a command file which will add the extension  ".old"
to all files which end either ".c" or ".s" .
 '#1'  represents  the  string  matched  by  the  '*'  and   '#2'
represents the character matched by the '[cs]' .
 '?' is also allowed and matches any single character.
 '#0' represents the logname of the owner of  the  file  matched.
e.g.:

        % mkcmd "/tmp/* is owned by #0"

will give a listing of all files in /tmp and their owners.